glad you found me

Ive had a URL change as the bears are on the back burner but we are here only once, don't be a miserable  gitt.

Valentines Day Swap makes you feel good inside

Goodness I knew I was bad but this bad is rediculous! I really thought i had posted all the pictures from my Christmas Swap with Sandra but turns out I just posted them all on Facebook (DUH!)
Now I have another swap and which do I post pictures of first..........

Might as well be as unorganised as always I say. So

Thanks to Tracy over at The Scrap Heap I got a lovely lot of Valentines day gifts delivered right on Valentines Day, caused me a dilemma what should I do first admire my darling hubbies gift or TEAR into the parcel from the courier.  Of course I was the good wife and admired the lovely miniature rose he brought and then saved the excitement for after tea.

I was so excited to open and find all lovely pink wraped gifts and it smelt delicious!

Im not sure how you knew Orange Blossom is im favourite soap smell but Im in Heaven right now.  little gingerbread hearts chocolates, stunning heart fabric and fabric ribbon and the cutest handsewn heart,  times like this make me warm and fuzzy and glad I became a crafty person. So a big thank you goes to Elaina at a little bit country nz,  you should really check out her blog.  I love what you sent me so thank you, thank you, thank you.  xx

and if you would like to see the Blog of the very lovely Lisa who I sent too (had to even plan ahead to get it sent on time as Lisa lives over the ocean) this is her blog Sprouting creative wings.

Its beginning to feel like Christmas

So the advent swap has started and I feel like a kid again getting to open a gift each day,  lots of fun. 

oh so exciting.

and just quickly on the Branch Christmas Party, wow what a day 700 people turned up, we only had about 7 families gifts not sorted for one reason or another (like they didn't fill in the RSVP lol) but it went of amazingly well.  Kerri did a fantastic job with her planning.

today starts the Secret Advent Swap

not so secret anymore as I think most of us have worked out who our swapper is or there was a nice little card in with the goodies.  I'm hoping that my swappie likes what I put in the box for her sometimes we need a little sunshine and kindness in our lives. 
I took a photo of my lovely pile when it arrived,

very, very excited I can tell you

and today is the 1st of December so I can open number 1, which I did with great gusto and here is my first lovely gift,

perfect to go on our Christmas tree.  and if you want to read how my bloggie swapper is doing here is the link http://masonmumblings.blogspot.co.nz/.

Other news today is our Auckland Branch Christmas Party and we have 700 adults and children coming along, 349 are children under 12 so they all get a gift.  Yesterday was spent sorting and bagging these, it is such an operation that I wont go into but believe me when I tell you it takes hours and we have a lovely team of helpers who come along (including my delightful children) and help us.  This year I delegated a whole lot of the work as last year I think I almost had a nervous break down doing it and then Geo and I just spent a week in Arrowtown (will post pictures later)  where my phone went of non stop!!

anyway almost time to head of to get the party rolling but here is a photo of the Boys gifts

watch out for tomorrows photo!

I wanted to lead you to my Pintrest page just encase you are my secret advent person but for some reason Blogger tells me the link is broken so I'm going to try like this.    oh and ps I love washi xx

http://www.pinterest.com/chrisste/boards/

something you can be thankful for...........

So a few Blogs' Im following are starting with the sentence below,  at first I thought I'm just going to ignore that as in this November month especially the beginning there is not a lot that I'm loving.  But as I thought about it a bit more I decided that this sad old heart is going to try my dandiest to find some LOVE.

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for no matter how simple it is. 

I am thankful that I can celebrate Josh's 21st birthday without too many people thinking Ive lost the plot and I am very thankful that some of my friends/family are celebrating with me,

Tyra always has to join in!

I am thankful that Im going to Queenstown this month (admittedly at the end of the month but hey) and will be meeting for the first time in REAL life the lovely Nik who lives in Cromwell

I am thankful for my friends who make my heart a bit warmer just by being in it

and who are going to KILL me for including this photo I took the other day when we met for coffee.

I might have to work a bit harder at thinking of things, maybe tomorrow xx

OMG really its been two years!!

So I'm slightly ashamed of the time that has passed since I was last here BUT I've had the push to start Blogging again thanks to a swap I'm taking part in......super excited but it does mean I've got some updating to do.  If you have stumbled across my blog and live in New Zealand (BEST place in the World) here is the link to the Christmas swap

http://catalinanz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/secret-advent-swap-2013.html


so Last two years well my children now look like this

doesn't Geo look beautiful and here is one of Scott and Mel from our dinner last night,

 

and here is Scott and I, we are all rocking our Pirate Hat

 

 

I guess I should explain,  Josh would have been 21 on the 6th of November so we thought we had better do a night of drink rum and wearing pirate hats and saying a lot of ARRRRGGGG me hearties,  we may look silly but we did have a lot of fun (just saying lol).

So maybe tomorrow I might load a few photo's of art stuff Ive been doing, not a lot of scrapbooking but heaps of ATC's, altered puzzles oh and Kelly and I have been working hard on doing a very messy art Journal (that faze started thanks to a lady named Ruth but that's a whole different story)
Ciao